


The Brothers Lionheart

by novera_nope



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Character Death, Drama & Romance, Fairy Tale Elements, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Post-Thor: The Dark World, References to Depression, Sibling Incest, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:07:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24134068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novera_nope/pseuds/novera_nope
Summary: “Tell me a story,” Loki demanded one summer evening. They were lying huddled up together beside the smouldering remains of the campfire their parents had built. “A good one.”“Alright.” Thor had always been unable to refuse his little brother anything. “Do you know the one about the brothers Lionheart?”
Relationships: Loki & Thor (Marvel), Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 53





	The Brothers Lionheart

Thor lies awake most nights. He can’t sleep, keeps tossing and turning in his bed which, even though Thor’s a large man, feels empty without his brother’s slight frame next to him. Every night, he can’t help but remember. 

***

“Tell me a story”, Loki demanded one summer evening. They were lying huddled up together beside the smouldering remains of the campfire their parents had built. “A good one.”

“Alright.” Thor had always been unable to refuse his little brother anything. “Just let me think for a moment.” 

Loki nodded sleepily, resting his head on Thor’s shoulder. 

“There once were two brothers,” Thor started. “Their last name was Lion. The elder one, Jonathan, was blond and blue-eyed, brave and strong. The younger one, Karl, had dark hair. He was way thinner than Jonathan and he looked nothing like him. He was smart and clever.”

“They’re just like us!” Loki exclaimed happily.

“Yes, just like us,” Thor nodded, feeling the corners of his mouth quirking up. “Jonathan adored his little brother and he was always telling him stories”. 

Loki smiled. 

“One day, a fire broke out while Karl was alone in their appartment on the second floor,” he continued. “Jonathan stormed in, ignoring the firemen who tried to block his way. He got to Karl and jumped out of the window with his brother in his arms. He saved Karl, but in doing so, he died.” 

“What? No!” Loki jumped up. “You can’t die!”

“ _I_ won’t,” Thor promised. “But Jonathan did. And because he’d been so brave, from that day on people referred to him as Lionheart instead of Lion – after the heroic English king Richard Lionheart.”

“But he _died_."

As Thor could see tears forming in Loki’s large green eyes, he felt genuinely bad. “Loki, it’s just a –"

“Stop upsetting your little brother, Thor,” Frigga intervened. “It’s past his bedtime, anyway.” She got up and took Loki’s hand in hers, dragging him with her towards the palace. 

When Loki turned around to look at Thor, his lip was still trembling. 

***

At night, memories of Loki enter Thor’s mind, unbidden. He doesn’t know if their presence makes him feel less alone or the exact opposite. He only knows he misses Loki so much it feels like there’s a hole where his heart used to be. 

***  
He remembers when years later, they were lying in his bed – this very bed –, tangled together in a sprawl of long limbs. 

Loki’d propped himself up on one elbow, trailing a finger across Thor’s broad chest. “Do you remember that story you told me when we were young? About the Lion brothers?”

“Yeah,” Thor chuckled. “Mother gave me quite the lecture afterwards.” 

“How did it end?” Loki was looking down at him expectantly.

Thor was silent for a moment. “Well, right before Jonathan died, he said the most peculiar words to Karl. “ _Don’t cry, brother_ ,” he said. _“We’ll meet again in Nangiyala.”_

Loki frowned in confusion. “Nangiyala? You mean Valhalla.”

“No,” Thor said, looking up at the cracks in the ceiling. “Nangijala’s not in Asgard – it’s a place far away from here, a place full of sagas and campfires. But Karl didn’t know that, and he felt sad to the bone when Jonathan was gone.” 

“And that was it?” Loki sounded disappointed. 

“Of course not.” Thor turned his face towards his brother. “One day, a snow white dove landed on Karl’s windowsill. And as it started cooing, it was as if he could hear Jonathan talking to him. ‘ _I’m waiting for you in Nangiyala,’_ the voice said.”

Loki shook his head in disbelief. “You’re making this up.”

“I’m not!” Thor laughed when Loki poked him in the side. “When later on Karl died as well, the first thing he saw was a little cottage surrounded by cherry trees, situated in a valley between mountains. For a moment, he simply marveled in the sound of the singing birds and the tinkling of clear brooks. Then he noticed the fence in front of the cottage. It had a wooden placard on it. _The brothers Lionheart_ , it read.” 

Loki took a moment to absorb that. “So they were together in the end? In Nangiyala?”

“Yes,” Thor answered, hissing as his brother flicked his nipple. 

“I like that,” Loki said, eyes flickering. “Together forever.” He grinned rather wickedly before capturing Thor’s mouth in a lazy kiss. “Fancy another go?”

***

When Thor does manage to fall asleep, it’s even worse. Worse, for when he’s awake, he can at least choose to remember the happy times with his brother, painful as the memories might be.

In his dreams, he’s visited by a bitter Loki, the Loki from after Thor’s failed coronation. It’s the Loki who’s found out about his true lineage, who challenges and stabs and lashes out because he’s suffering – norns, he was _suffering_ , and Thor failed to do anything about it as he didn’t even see it at the time. 

***

Loki brought up the story again at the most unlikely of times. 

He was standing next to the Bifrost that was destroying Jotunheim as they were speaking, raging about proving to Odin that he was a worthy son, about wanting to be Thor’s equal. 

“It’s even in that story,” he spat. “Oh, but you omitted that part, didn’t you? I wonder why. Were you laughing behind my back even then?”

Thor didn’t have a clue what Loki was talking about. “What story? What didn’t I tell you?”

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t play dumb with me. You failed to mention that Jonathan was everything Karl could never be. That Karl was perpetually standing in the shadow of his perfect, golden big brother. Oh, how much fun you must have had, telling me this story, without ever mentioning the details to me. Leading me on with a tale of eternal love.”

Thor swallowed thickly, finally catching on. “Loki, I never –"

“You never told me how, when Jonathan died saving Karl, people expressed what a shame it was that it had to be _him_. How they wished it had been Karl, instead.” Loki laughed, a sharp sound. “I’ll give it to you, it sounds exactly like something Odin would say.”

Loki’s eyes were moist all of a sudden and Thor slowly took a step towards him. “Loki.”

“Do you remember how Karl always felt unworthy of the name 'Lionheart'? For he’d never done anything to deserve it?” His breathing became harsh. 

Thor realized full well that Loki wasn’t talking about the story or Karl. What he should’ve said was: “You’re just as much an Odinson as I am, Loki. You’ve only ever been my equal.”

What came out instead was: “It’s just a stupid children’s story, Loki. This is madness.”

Loki let out an almost inhuman cry and attacked him.

***

The cry’s haunting him, still. Thor doesn’t know how many times he’s relived that particular scene in his dreams, but every time the stabbing feeling of failing Loki hits him straight in his chest. Sometimes he feels like he’s going insane. 

There’s only one dream that’s worse than this one – the memory of losing Loki forever. 

***

They were on Svartalfheim with Jane, trying to destroy the Aether. Loki’d just saved him from the monster Kurse, giving his own life for Thor’s, and Thor was clutching him as best as he could without hurting his brother even further. 

They’d managed to rebuild some of the implicit trust there once was between them, but at that moment, it became quite clear that there wouldn’t be enough time to completely mend things. 

_If they’d only had more time._

_If only –_

“I’m a fool,” Loki whispered. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I –"

“It’s ok, shh.” Thor cradled his brother’s head, trying not to show how utterly desperate he felt. “It’s all right. I’ll tell Father what you did here today.”

“I didn’t do it for him,” Loki wheezed, eyes pleading for Thor to understand. 

And oh, he did. He couldn’t help the tears forming in his eyes. “Loki –"

Loki’s breath caught for a moment. “Don’t – cry, brother. We’ll meet again – in Nan-"

As the light faded from his brother’s eyes, Thor wailed. But Jane was still there, and they needed to get the hell out of there, and so he left, leaving Loki’s still body behind. 

Once again, he’d failed him. 

***

Thor’s rapidly descending into depression, even he himself realizes that – or maybe he’s already there. He doesn’t answer to Odin’s calls anymore, hardly ever gets up at all, because he simply doesn’t see the point anymore. If he can’t even protect his own brother, if he’s done nothing but hurt him, then what good is he to the people of Asgard? 

***

One morning, after another night of fitful sleep, Thor’s awakened by an incessant tapping sound against the window of his room. He gets up, not without difficulty, and opens the window. On his windowsill, in the first beams of sunlight, sits a snow white dove. 

For a moment, Thor thinks he’s still dreaming – it shouldn’t surprise him that his mind has found another way to torment him. But the bird just keeps sitting there for minutes, watching him, and then suddenly it cocks his head and Thor feels something blossom in his chest that he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. Hope. 

“Loki?” he croaks, not even trying to hold back the tears that start leaking from his eyes. 

The dove cooes softly and Thor swears he can hear his brother’s teasing voice. _'You do realize you’re talking to a pigeon, right? Oh, brother, one might think you’ve gone mad.'_

Thor lets out a watery giggle that quickly turns into full-blown laughter, because of course Loki would say something like _that_. He imagines he must indeed look like a madman, should someone enter his chambers right now. 

“You're waiting for me,” Thor manages to get out when his laughter subdues. "In Nangiyala."

The dove blinks once before flying up into the orange sky, and Thor looks at it until it’s out of sight. He takes a deep breath, looking out over Asgard. Then he looks down. 

He won’t fail Loki again. 

He won’t.

**Author's Note:**

> "The Brothers Lionheart" was written by Astrid Lindgren. In my opinion it's one of the best children's books of all times.


End file.
